PMQ WOW Summer Camp 2018

Initiated by PMQ and supported by Hong Kong government, Loftwork HK were asked to host a 4 days summer educational program that is specifically designed for high school students that aims to explore how creativity can be taught and how we can empower the next generation to be more resilient to our fast changing future.

Design thinking is nowadays commonly defined as the way to solve problems creatively. It is a process adopted by many companies, but rarely seen or deployed in high school education. Working in teams, students were guided to go through the process of research, define problem, empathy, ideate and prototype.
“Rediscover Sheung Wan” is the theme of this program. Students started their project by observing Sheung Wan area under the framework of Activity, Environment, Interaction, Object and Users. Towards the end, students will come up with prototypes made with digital fabrication, sensors as well as mobile apps that attempt to solve the problems they defined on the first day. None of the projects were the same since it was derived from different observations.

Besides design thinking, students also learnt about digital fabrication technology, app building, IoT, and most importantly, the idea of iterative design through building prototypes. Projects outcome ranges from wearable device helping elderly’s to gamified wayfinding interface for tourists. But in end, the entire experience and learning process count more than the final output.

PMQ and loftwork both realise the potential of this program and would like to take a step further to schools, teachers as well as parents.

Words from PMQ:
Design thinking is a more “visual” way to teach creativity.
In the future, we also need to educate teachers and parents on design thinking and creativity.
Definitely interested to tie this program to united nations sustainable development goals in the future